last four days

here's a rundown of how i spent the last days of my 2010:

december 28.

kim and i had our regular year-end hair trim at tony & jackey in buendia.

about two hours after

after five more hours

 after getting a new do, we headed to eastwood and i ended up reading the wind-up bird chronicle by haruki murakami over merienda at krispy kreme while kim played with my iphone. after that, we went to bonifacio high street to check out muji. we loved the store and ended up buying a set of fabric crayons.

i tried them right away :D

i also got a 0.25 point pink pen, correction pen and eyelash curler rubber pads. we spent the rest of the night at fully booked and naturally, i went home with a bag of stick-on notes and bookmarks.

december 29.

after a very lazy morning, i hauled my ass out of the house for a mani-pedi at a neighborhood salon. i had my nails painted blue.

after that, kim and i went to rockwell. it was our first time there and amazingly, the first restaurant we saw was our favorite california pizza kitchen so we just had our dinner there.

and then we found ourselves at the newly-opened muji store, which has a more-varied selection. i bought a small notepad, pencil case, earplugs and lint remover, while kim got a sketch notebook (i caught him smiling happily to himself while looking at it, haha).

december 30.

it rained hard that day but it didn't stop us from going to quiapo. kim was insistent and persistent in finding a wealth-attracting chinese figurine. our search was successful. we found a jambala fit for the bill. kim gave it to his mom for their lomi business. after that we headed to ibaan, batangas for the fiesta celebration there. we went to the perya (carnival) after dinner and tried our luck in the color game. we stopped betting after winning P200.

today (december 31).

kim helped me prepare the table for media noche at our house while my parents were at the farm. we also had to do a last-minute grocery shopping later in the afternoon because my mom forgot to buy some stuff. as of writing, everything is all set except for the barbecue.

measure your 2010 in love <3

how i spent my christmas 2010

i had work both on the eve and day of christmas. but eventhough i did not spend these two days the way i wanted to, i can say that i still enjoyed my christmas as best as i possibly could.

on christmas eve, i sang "we wish you a merry christmas" with my christmas research teammates kate and schatzi. easy you say? well, we sang while eating goldilocks polvoron. you are very much free to try it yourself, hehe. as if doing it wasn't embarrassing enough, we even had one of our friends, julie, to film us (video here, for facebook friends only)!

oh but did we have so much fun! no regrets!

we were able to be off from work by 6:30 p.m. thank god! kim picked me up so i was able to reach home hassle-free. i even made it to the 9 p.m. mass with the family. after the mass, we had our pre-noche buena at my aunt gem's house, which is near the church.

cousin kyle, nephew rajah, moi, mom, sis, aunt gem, uncle lex, dad, bro-in-law

back at home, we were still full from tita gem's food so we just exchanged gifts with each other and took a family photo beside our little tree. my brother, sister-in-law and niece did not make it to our house because it was raining hard at their place and my niece has the colds.

on christmas day, i begged my brother to come home early in the morning because i will be off for work again before lunchtime. i was very happy that he did arrive with his family by 7 a.m. we had our noche buena food for breakfast, exchanged gifts again and then took another family photo before i head to work.

<333

we had a slow day at work and by 7 p.m. we were already singing (schatzi brought a magic sing set) our hungry stomachs (kenny's delivery service was delayed) away. thanks to kate's sister krista's pasta, we were able to sing five songs each without collapsing. anyway, kate kept a tally of our scores and schatzi won. here be a photo while kate was singing like a virgin!

we made it through the wildernessss...

our day in the office was capped off by this winterrr wonderrrland photo:

we hope you all had a merrry chrrristmas :D

back at our makati unit, i started *really* opening (i've been peeking the whole time with some wrappers half opened already) the gifts i received from family and friends. i took a photo of my loot this morning:

guess i've been nice this year ;)

happy holidays

be sure to eat, drink and party! but don't forget to also pray, love and make other people happy!

a crazy hat party

december 22. the last hoorah for this month's series of christmas parties. this one was hosted by the inquirer libre. strictly crazy hat party: no hat, no food and drinks policy (at hindi papansinin).

lovely full moon <3

venue: pdi rooftop

party-party!!!

raffle!!!

videoke!!!

until next year :)

note: most photos are grabbed from kate (thank you very much!) and then edited via picnik.com.

pdi editorial party

december 21. just like last year, buffet dinner and packed mang inasal was served and then the raffle followed. i did not win. again. but that's no reason not to enjoy the rest of the night.

research teammates + armin + jaykie + princess + kim

tequila shots

videoke *\0/*

with pdi eic miss letty jimenez-magsanoc

with pdi managing ed sir joey nolasco

<3

merry christmas :)

pdi research party

december 21. lunchtime. we trooped down the library and stuffed ourselves with pancit lucban and malabon, loaf bread, ensaymada, pizza, polvoron, ice cream and cake at the pdi research lunch party!

back at the research department, we did a photo booth project and it was a such huge success that we just had to have a wine-and-cheese party after (seriously, ha-ha-ha!).

groupakkk™

nuvali-atc with sibs, in-laws, kids

december 18. my nephew rajah turned 9 last thursday so my siblings and i found an excuse for a short trip to laguna and then alabang to celebrate rajah's birthday. we had lunch at reyes barbecue and desserts at conti's.

rajah was so surprised when the crew arrived singing with his birthday cake. a really precious moment. watch the short clip here (for facebook friends only).

we also admired the koi while rajah feeds them and then went boating.

 after that we headed to alabang town center for my niece aya's photoshoot at the picture company.

we had dinner at amici in atc and had a last stopover at mcdo, caltex along slex before going home. a long and tiring but happy and enjoyable day.

this boy had a happy birthday <3

fish and friends

december 17. for this year's last monthly angels' night, kate the designated host set our date at fish & co. in greenbelt 3. cy didn't make it but her gifts did. she got me a bag with pink/gold elephants print from thailand. i loved it!

normal mode/pakkk mode

because december is also kate's birth month, ice and i made her blow a fry in lieu of a birthday candle (and cake), hehe.

kate and her birthday fry, cheers!

my chaperone <3

football, drinks night

december 16. amid the craziness of research work, we had a night of everything but research work. we also had with us ate abi (pdi business reporter), who dropped by the office with cakes for the research team (yay!), and our respective satellites.

our first mission was to find a place with a television set so we can catch the game of the azkals (the philippine soccer team) against indonesia at the suzuki cup. andrea and schatzi, who were off from work early, found for us the then non-crowded california pizza kitchen branch at greenbelt 5. we had one round of drinks there while watching the azkals' game. those who haven't eaten dinner also stuffed themselves.

after the game (the azkals lose, sad face), we transferred to chili's for our second mission: get drunk somewhere that offers alcoholic drinks at a relatively cheap price. we had the bottomless nachos and two pitchers of frozen margarita. kate was staying away from tequila and had beer, while kim was staying away from alcoholic drinks in general and had a molten chocolate smoothie.

pakkk shots :))

and here be a perfect way to cap off the night:

party in the elevator :))

p.s.
don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge. ;P